It has long been the common practice of persons recreating at parks and beaches to equip themselves with pillows, folding portable back rests and the like to provide comfortable support for their heads, while lying on sand or turf or any other flat surface and/or to comfortably support their backs when sitting on the sand or turf.
Conventional pillows such as might be used for the above purpose are generally large and bulky items which are extremely inconvenient, if not difficult to carry about when one walks or otherwise travels to and from a recreation site. Further, while such pillows afford comfortable support for one's head, while lying on a flat surface with his or her head in a substantially horizontal, face-up position, they are substantially ineffective to hold and comfortably support the head up at an angle where the person's face is disposed so that he or she can visually pan horizontally and observe ongoing activities in the surrounding area which is a most common position assumed by persons recreating at parks and beaches. Such positioning of one's head is most commonly attained by piled up sand or gathered together and piled up articles of clothing and the like to establish an adequate head support.
Those portable folding backrests provided by the prior art for use by those recreating at parks and beaches are rather large and complicated structures most commonly comprising three pivotally related substantially rectangular frames of wood or metal tubing; there being a horizontal base frame and upwardly and rearwardly inclined back supporting frame and a forwardly and upwardly inclined bracing frame. The several frames are shiftable from a flat folded down condition to an up or open position where the base frame rests upon the sand or turf, the support frame is inclined upwardly and rearwardly above the base frame and the bracing frame extends upwardly and forwardly from the base frame to engage the support frame. The support frame carries a panel of fabric or the like to engage and support the back of one sitting on the sand or turf immediately forward the support structure.
Ordinary folding portable backrests of the character referred to above are so large and inconvenient to use that most people consider them to be a nuisance. Further, they are oftentimes extremely uncomfortable since one or more of the sides and/or rails of the frame structure (more often than not) engage and bear against a part of the user's body, to interfere with his or her circulation or otherwise cause discomfort.
The above noted shortcomings and/or disadvantages associated with ordinary pillows and common folding backrests are but a few of the more apparent and most commonly recognized shortcomings that might be listed and which point to the reasons the portage and use of such equipment by the overwhelming majority of parks and beach goers is avoided.